Civil War Re-enactment Incident

Published December 5th, 2008

An honest mistake turned into a full police matter this weekend when several off-duty officers saw a gun in a North Central Florida restaurant.

Dusty Rhodes forgot about the pistol that was in his boot from the second Annual Battle of Hogtown Civil War re-enactment at Poe Springs. But an off-duty officer who was in the High Springs Hardee's noticed the weapon and called police. Several High Springs police officers showed up a short time later, two with guns drawn by their sides. Rick Murphy, who witnessed the incident, said it was obvious Rhodes was involved in some sort of re-enactment.

â€œI was more freaking over the cops,â€ Murphy said. â€œI was afraid they were going to shoot someone for nothing.â€

But High Springs Police Chief Jim Troiano said he thinks police acted appropriately, but that the actions of the officers will be reviewed.

Rhodes was not charged with any weapons violations. Police did find a few grams of marijuana and charged him with possession and paraphernalia charges.